Locomotive comprising a turbine power plant and transmission gearing



IMay 18,1954L Filed oct. 14.4 94a J. o. P. HuGHEs n LOCOMOTIVECOMPRISING A TURBINE POWER PLANT AND TRANSMISSION GEARINGSVSheets-Shee't l May 18 1954 J, o. P. HUGHES I 2,678,611

LOCOMOTIVE COMPRISING A TURBINE POWER l 4 PLANT AND TRANSMIssIoN GEARINGFiled Oct. 14. 1948 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY May 18, 1954 J. o.' P.HUGHES 2,678,611 A LocoNoTIvE coMPRzsING A TURBINE POWER f .PLANT ANDTRANSMISSION GEARING Filed Oct. 14, 1948 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 www PatentedMay 18, 195,4

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE '2,678,611 LOCOMOTWE `COMPRISIINTG ARBN,rovvmt PLANT AND TRANSMISSION GEARING Claims priority, application Great`Britain October 29, 1947 Claims. l

"he invention relates to a locomotive having gearing of the kind inwhich an input shaft capable of revolving in one direction only and atlligh speed, is geared to an output shaft arranged at right angles tothe input shaft and intended to be driven alternatively in eitherdirection and at comparatively low speed. Gearing of this kind isSuitable for example lfor a purely mechanical drive from a gasturbine tothe Wheels of the locomotive. i

In such a gas turbine locomotive the space oetween the locomotiveframes, i. e. transverse to the direction of the rails, is limited andit is an object ofthe invention to provide a gearing which can beusually accommodated between the main frames of the locomotive placedbetween the driving wheels.

Acoording to a naiiiffeature of the invention the transmission gearingcomprises an input shaft adapted to revolve iii one direction only at acomparatively high speed, a pair of spur gear pinions arranged inalignment with one another and with the said input shaft, a pair otlongitudinal lay shafts arrange-o in alignment with one another parallelto said input shaft, a pair of spur gear wheels eacharranged co-aiiiallywith one of the said longitudinal lay shaits and mesh with one of thesaid spur gear 'piniond a pail" of bevel gear p'inions each co-axiallyarranged with one of the said longitudinal lay shafts, a pair of clutchmeans adapted to "alternatively disconnect the said input shaft from thesaid bevel gear pinions and to connect it with either of them, atransverse lay shaft, a bevel gear attached to said transverse lay shaftand in 'mesh with both the said bevel gear pinions, a

spur gear pinion attached to the said transverse lay shaft, and a bigspur gear wheel in mesh with the spur gear pinion on the said transverselay shaft and adapted to be driven at a comparatively low speed, formingthe output member of the said transmission gears.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the gas turbine unit andthe high speed input shaft driven by it are placed on the centre line ofthe locomotive While the centre line of the low speed gear is offsetfrom the centre line of the locomotive and arranged `sidesbyeside withthe nal drive to a driven locomotive axle.

According to a development of the invention, the" highspeed input shaftis continued' to drive another gear unit of similar nature for the driveof 'another locomotive axle and/or to drive auxilia'ry units of thelocomotive sucli as an electric generator, a compressor arid/or'exhauhstor' etc.

.In order that the nature of the invention may be better understood, anembodiment of the invention will be described in what follows withreference to the accompanying drawings, of WhicnFig. 1 shows adiagrammatic side eleva= tion of a gas turbine driven locomotiveaoc'ording to the invention, Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation ofa gear unit as mounted in a locomotive according to the invention, andFig.. 2d is a oorresponding View of a similar gear unit arf ranged inalignment with that of Fig. 2 and adapted for the drive of locomotiveauxiliaries, While Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic cross section on line 3-3`of Fie. 2.

Referring iirst to Fig. 1, a gas turbine set oomprising an air filterH3, a compressor |29, a gas' turbine rotor driving said compressor andanother gas turbine rotor driving the shaft l dis'- posed co-aXially andin series iiow arrangement, but mechanically independent from oneanother within the casing l l2, a pair of combustion chambers 23, and aheat exchanger |28, is arranged with its axis on the vertical centreplane of the locomotive within the main frame 25. Shaft is connected byresilient discs l both with the said gas turbine rotor and with theinput member of a gearing 3l which is enclosed in the casing 23 and anextension shaft I3 may lead to a 'siihilar' gearing (not shown).

Embodiments of the gearing 3l will be dsoribed later in detail. In Fig.l the last transmission stage only is indicated dlagrammatiall by thepinion 8 and big gear wheel 9, the latter being adapted to drive thelocomotive axle Il by meansof a rs'ilientcoupling means i422. Side rods|24 are provided to drive the adjacent locomotive axles.

According to the embodiment or the invention as illustrated in Figs. 2,2a and 3, the input shaft l, which is intended to be driven by the gastui"- bine in one direction only at a comioar'ativelti high number ofrevolutions drives two spur gears" 2 andiV which mesh with two spur gearwheels 3 and 3' arranged in alignment with one another on longitudinallay shafts` Il and 4f each of which carries a bevel pinion, 5 and 5respectively. Thesel bevel pinions mesh with the bevel Wheel 6 arrangedon the transverse lay shaft "l carrying a spur gear pinion 8 (Fig. 3).This pinion meshes with the spur gear Wheel 9 arranged co-aiiially' witha main locomotive driving axle Il and torque connection with it througharadially resilient coupling I0. Clutches may be arranged on the layshafts 6 and 4 respectively, at B and B so as to couple alternativelythe bevel pinion's 5 and 5 with their respective spur gear Wheel 3 and3. It' Will be clear from the diagram that this' means reversing thedrive of the output shaft l'l while maintaining the sense of rotation ofthe input shaft l.

Alternatively, the clutches may be arranged at A and A for theconnection of either spur gear pinion 2 or 2', to the input shaft I. Inneutral position the clutches at A, A or B, B are usually disengaged.

When the power to be transmitted is very large, it may be desirable todivide it among more than one such gear unit so that the powertransmitted through one axle may be kept within a chosen maximum gure.This is achieved according to the invention by placing similar gearunits on different axles, the requisite number of axles being coupledtogether by the well known device of cranks and side rods.

In order to avoid interference by the double coupling or" said differentaxles on the one hand through the said gearing units, on the other handthrough said side rods, torsionally resilient coupling means arearranged in the drive from the gearing units to the said coupled axles.In such a case the input shafts I (Fig. 2) and i2 (Fig. 2a) are coupledtogether by means of the propeller shaft I3 and the flexible couplingsIt and Iii. The second gear may differ from the first only in anadditional spur gear train consisting of the spur gear pinion I5 drivenby the input shaft I2, and meshing with the gear wheel iii. The gearwheel I3 drives the auxiliary gear train i7, through the propeller shaitI3 and the universal joints I9 and I9' of any well known type. Thisarrangement oi auxiliary drive allows the main l transmission gear unitsto be removed from the locomotive without disturbing the auxiliaries byuncoupling the universal joint I9. In a locomotive equipped with onlyone transmission gear unit the auxiliary drive may be arranged inalignment with shaft I and driven by shaft I3 through the flexiblecouplings I4 and Ili; in this case the auxiliary gear would incorporatea bigger speed reduction.

ranged with one of the said longitudinal lay shafts, a pair of clutchmeans adapted to alternatively disconnect the said input shaft from thesaid bevel gear pinions and to connect it with either of them, atransverse lay shaft, a bevel gear attached to said transverse lay shaftand in mesh with both the said bevel gear pinions, a spur gear pinionattached to the said transverselay shaft, and a big spur gear wheel inmesh with the spur gear pinion onthe said transverse lay shaft andadapted to be driven at a comparatively low speed, forming the outputmember of the said transmission gears, the two longitudinal lay shafts,the transverse lay shaft and the output member all being arrangedasymmetrcally to the vertical centre plane of the locomotive, a radiallyresilient torque coupling, and a driven locomotive axle, the saidradially resilient torque coupling being arranged laterally to andco-axially with the said output member on the said driven locomotiveaxle in operative driving connection therewith.

2. A locomotive as claimed in claim 1 comprising a protective casingenclosing the said transmission gearing, the said radially resilienttorque coupling being arranged outside the said casing.

3. A locomotive as claimed in claim 1 comprising an additionaltransmission gearing, a driving shaft connecting said additionaltransmission gearing with the input member of the first transmissiongearing, and another driven locomotive axle in operative drivingconnection with the output member of the said additional transmissiongearing.

4. A locomotive as claimed in claim 3 comprising side rod drives adaptedto couple the said As will be seen from Fig. 3, each gear may be 4""enclosed in a gear box 29 diagrammatically indicated in chain dottedlines, while the radially resilient torque coupling I0 which may be ofthe lrind described in one or" my copending Patent Applications No.69,506, still pending, or No. 126,170, now Patent Number 2,554,739,issued May 29, 1951, is arranged outside said gear box so as to bereadily accessible for servicing.

Both the gear box and torque coupling iIJ are arranged between thelocomotive main frames 25 placed between the driving wheels 22.

While I have described and illustrated a preferred embodiment of myinvention I'wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to theexact details and dimensions as described and illustrated, for obviousmodiiicaticns will occur to a person skilled in the art.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A locomotive, comprising a turbine power plant having its centre linearranged on the vertical centre plane of the locomotive, a transmissiongearing comprising an input shaft adapted to revolve in one directiononly at a comparatively high speed, a pair of spur gear pinions arrangedin alignment with one another and with the said input shaft, a pair olongitudinal lay shafts arranged in alignment with one another parallelto said input shaft, a pair of Spur gear wheels each arranged co-axiallywith one of the said longitudinal lay shafts and in a direct mesh withone of the said spur gear pinions for driving both in the samedirection, a pair of bevel gear pinions each co-axially ardrivenlocomotive axles, and torsionally resilient coupling means operativelyarranged between at least oney of the said transmission gearings and itsassociated driven locomotive axle.

5. A locomotive as claimed in claim 3 comprising, in addition,locomotive accessories including an air pump for the locomotive brakesand an electric generator, and a reduction gearing adapted to be drivenby the input member of one of the said transmission gearings and todrive the said locomotive accessories at a. reduced speed.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 567,560 Bagnell Sept. 8, 1896 873,442 Levin Dec. 10, 19071,215,581 Rutherford Feb. 13, 1917 1,984,958 Barske Dec. 18, 19342,034,778 Storey Mar. 24, 1936 2,118,814 Holzwarth May 31, 19382,140,967 Nylenegger Dec. 20, 1938 2,142,266 Drachenberg Jan. 3, 19392,171,715 Sinclair Sept. 5, 1939 2,424,543 Alben July 29. 1947 2,424,676Alben July 29, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 733,013 France.Sept. 29, 1932 779,250 France Apr. 1, 1935 309,412 Germany Nov. 25,1918 190,193 Great Britain Dec. 18, 1922 253,297 Great Britain June 17,1926 55,694 Netherlands Dec. 15, 1943 107,419

Sweden May 18, 1943

